In 2008, the 100 Thing Challenge created quite a stir on the web, motivating people to own fewer material possessions and cap that ownership at 100 personal items. While Dave Bruno’s challenge lasted for a finite period, some analysts think recession fueled decreases in consumer spending may represent a permanent trend in consumer behavior. 

When considered along with the 100 Thing Challenge, the idea of a permanent decreasing in spending leads to a challenging thought experiment for marketers: what if your advertising not only had to generate interest from consumers but also had to motivate them to displace another possession prior to acquiring your product?

The thought begs a number of questions:

• How does your marketing emphasize the value your brand provides?
• Would severely constrained demand change your approach to demonstrating this value?
• If yes, would that approach be different in Albuquerque, New Mexico compared to Augusta, Maine?
• How would you coordinate your efforts in different geographic areas across multiple mediums?
  

At Balihoo, we believe that knowledge and know-how to adapt marketing to local markets probably already exists within your Brand’s organization. Rather, what most brands are missing are the tools to execute locally.  Balihoo’s local marketing software simplifies and automates your local marketing strategy, enabling national brands to collaborate with franchisees and affiliates to drive demand and appeal to local buyers with local needs. Specifically for national brands, Balihoo provides tools to streamline funds allocation and administrative oversight of Co-op Advertising programs.  Take a look at our White Papers to see how our software can help both your franchisees, and affiliates to drive sales with creative and targeted campaigns tailored to the local level. 

Imagine a big jar filled with Skittles.  The Skittles are randomly distributed throughout the jar; a jumbled mishmash of red, green, yellow, purple and orange. The jar is on a machine that shakes it vigorously.  Now, imagine that this shaking action is captured on a video and played in reverse. There is no way that you can tell the video is being played in reverse.   When the video is played backward, the candies bounce just as they would when played forward.  You have no way to know if the video is playing forward or in reverse.

Now, record a new video in your mind.  This time, start with a jar where the Skittles are arranged in colored layers.  Moving from the bottom to the top, you have red, green, yellow, purple and finally a orange layer.  As the machine shakes the jar, the candies bounce and collide until they are again randomly distributed. 

In this video, you can easily distinguish a forward playing recording from one that plays in reverse.  This experiment illustrates the effect of entropy known as the arrow of time.  The basic principle of this model is that without the help of an external exertion of energy, a system tends to become less ordered over time.  Interestingly, this is the only physical property that seems to define the flow of time from past to future.

I got to thinking about this principle as I was mowing, weeding and maintaining my yard yesterday afternoon.  Everything in life follows this principle: yards, cars, homes, computer systems, roads and even business strategies including your local advertising strategy. It will slowly fall apart and become less effective over time if you don't continually test, measure and refine it.  For example, if local internet marketing was not a part of your strategy a few years ago, it may not have hurt your sales.  But, today, if you aren't investing in local internet marketing, then you are almost certainly losing opportunities.

Even if you are executing a successful local pay-per-click campaign today, it is almost guaranteed to be less successful in the future if you don't continually test, measure and refine your approach.  The same goes for all other mediums, strategies, tactics and local marketing ideas.  You have to stay up-to-date on the new tools and techniques or your competitors who do keep up will leave you behind.

As a national brand, local affiliate, reseller or independent small business owner, you have a lot to worry about, and probably don't have time to get into the nuts and bolts of fighting local advertising entropy.  That is where Balihoo comes in. We do that work for you; from ad builder software to email campaign automation, microsites and local media buying.  Click here to take a look at some of our whitepapers and case studies.  If you are a franchisee or product reseller, then direct your national brands to Balihoo, so that we can help them and you to get your skittles (aka: local store marketing strategy) to look more like this:

Working on the local consumer advertising side of the dental implant industry, I understand the barrier of finding financially qualified leads. This procedure is still young, and consumers are simply uneducated on the cost parameters. Once they see the high out-of-pocket cost, they have to ask themselves how much they would pay to smile proudly again, eat apples and steak, speak confidently, and eliminate the stigma of dentures going in the sock drawer at night. What is the price tag on quality of life?

The New York Times posted a good article on this topic on July 29 - read it here.

As Lesley Alderman writes in this story, insurance typically only covers up to $1,500. When a single implant procedure runs $3,000 minimum and full-arch implants start at $20,000, you can imagine the sticker shock experience for a consumer who just wants to eat steak again.

Based on our experience, the best prospect-to-patient conversion rates in dental implant marketing happen as a result of public education seminars and our local media buying experts have given clients great results by recommending advertising in newspapers. It turns out to be a key medium for the target of this specific marketing campaign with these demographics (female in house, 55+, household income of $75,000+).

We worked with a dental implant center in Boise that ran their third public education seminar last night. They had 21 attendees, of whom 17 had missing teeth (the other 4 were supportive spouses). Not bad for two hours of the surgeons' evening! These were These attendees scheduled personal consultations on the spot, and when they walk into their appointments, they will have a solid understanding of the benefits and costs of available procedures.

If you are interested to learn how Balihoo's dental marketing arm can provide local marketing ideas to benefit your business, contact us: www.dentalmarketing.balihoo.com.

A few days ago I encountered what struck me as a very unique online banner ad for Zappos.com.  It was an image of a charming customer service representative with a speech bubble that read 'Happy to help 24/7".  How interesting, I thought, that the message of the advertisement was focused not on Zappos' wonderful selection of shoes, their speedy (free!) delivery, or even their multitude of other clothing and home goods offered for sale on their website, but rather on their customer service!  I figured it was not just a standalone banner ad that I had stumbled upon.  I knew there had to be a good sized campaign going on with more of these charming puppets promoting Zappos famous customer service and quirky (er... charismatic) employees.

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

This sentiment by Longfellow has outlived its time.  Longfellow was writing in the mid-1800's.    If you were magically shot back to this era, think how quiet, how simple things would seem compared to today's world of iPod's and twitter and Jumbo Trons.  

In building marketing software tools for local advertisers, this idea takes on a whole new level of importance.  The more complicated the process, the harder it is to simplify, AND the more important it is to simplify. 

You can have the coolest features ever, but if they're not usable, your users will call you out on it, as they should.  When it comes to a new feature, take what you think should be there, and then strip it down to what absolutely needs to be there, and then make sure that is simple.  When it comes to building local marketing software, which is complicated in its nature, it doesn't always work out that way, but I will continue to use this idea to check myself.

"Supersize it" A phrase that brings about thoughts of gigantean proportions and excess - and that still remains glued to the McDonald's name even though the Supersize option was eliminated over five years ago.

When the news broke in 2004 that McDonald's was axing its larger-than-large size, McDonald's explained that the decision was based upon down sales and "Menu simplification - the fact of the matter is not many Supersize fries are sold" (as stated by Walt Riker, McDonald's spokesman).  The surprise blockbuster hit and Oscar nominated Supersize Me (filmed in February 2003 and aired May of 2004) was supposedly not a factor in the franchise marketing team's decision.

Interesting then, that today more and more franchise marketing and product teams (not McDonald's) are moving (and heavily promoting) larger and larger menu items - Carl's 12-inch Big Carl burger, Sonic's foot-long Quarter Pounder Coney (1 1/2 inches longer than its previous longest hot dog), etc.




Carl's Marketing Development chief, Brad Haley says that for the chain's core customers - young men between the ages of 18 to 24 the idea of a foot-long sandwich works, "Obviously the foot-long sandwich has been very successful at Subway...we decided to do it the Carl's way".

Now, there is obviously a key difference between how these two brands are publicly perceived - Subway has cleverly marketed itself as being the "healthy" QSR-joint - Carl's Jr. on the other hand....not so much. This difference in consumer perception (regardless of specific nutritional facts) will likely have an impact on the QSRs that choose to offer gargantuan sizes. Also of interest (and something that Carl's has obviously identified - they have a very specific target audience that just might jump at this offer - so unless Carl's is featured in the next 'Americans eat-too-darn-much' documentary, their message might just work. 

For the small business owner with local store marketing needs - taking risks with new products and services (and their promotion efforts) can be unnerving (especially considering that the local business owner's marketing budget isn't exactly "Carl's size"). Having a professional media team available that can help you identify and pinpoint your target audience and place your message in front of them - AND a creative team that can ensure that your message is in-concert with your brand and resonates locally can take a huge weight off of your shoulders.

To learn how Balihoo helps national brands and franchise organization's effectively market their message and product launches at the local level, contact us today!

When Nobel Biocare asked Balihoo to partner with them to provide local consumer advertising for their dental implant clinician clients, we jumped at the opportunity. We initially rolled out a subscription service that provides clinicians with a soup-to-nuts advertising campaign. We are excited to announce that we have added two new subscriptions to our service offerings. We have our clients to thank for communicating what they want, and we listened!

In the initial "Platinum" Subscription, we start by diving into the market to develop a cross-medium annual strategy with budget allocation, detailed tactics and demographic research. The service also includes a suite of creative material that includes TV, radio, print, direct mail, online, internet paid search - the full gamut. We load this material into our proprietary co-op marketing software where clinicians can customize it to their brand and objectives. Finally, we perform local media buying and post-buy analysis.

Having consulted with hundreds of dental implant clinicians over the past year, we have learned a lot about what they want in an advertising campaign. Importantly, we learned many clinicians are not ready to dive into a mass media advertising campaign, the cost barrier aside. They are simply not ready to see their name on TV or a billboard. This puts them in a defensive position with their GP referral base that they may not be ready to manage. They are, however, very comfortable with Internet marketing and hosting free patient education seminars through their local newspaper.

These learnings combined, we came up with the Gold and Silver Subscriptions.

Gold includes:

• Print (newspaper & direct mail)
• Online (Google AdWords bidding & E-mail)
• Microsite (w/customizable offers that update immediately)
• Media Buying
• Account Management

Silver includes:

• Online (Google AdWords bidding & E-mail)
• Microsite (w/customizable offers that update immediately)

The Gold subscription includes material focused on marketing patient education seminars. Silver will eventually include microsites that market dental services other than implants (i.e. wisdom teeth, veneers, crowns and bridges, etc.) We will continue to deliver services as our clients ask for them and always welcome new ideas!
Are you a Nobel Biocare customer? Are you interested in local marketing ideas to grow your dental implant business? Go to www.dentalmarketing.balihoo.com to learn more or download our whitepaper here.

In 2004, I remember Facebook emerging (seemingly) from nowhere as a new social networking site intended solely for college students (going so far as to require a .edu email address to even sign up).  It was very blue, and very simple--example: remember the days before the News Feed?  The days when the 'Poke' finger took up like half your welcome page?  It was 'social networking' at its best...   if Mark Zuckerberg intended social networking to be a platform for co-eds to pepper each other with Status Updates like "dude, I got soooooo blaaaasted last nite" and maintain Interests like "Being Drunk".  Nice, Zuck.

Fast forward to 2007, and we see a donnybrook begin to form. FB starts to throw its weight around by opening up service to high school students and suddenly you're either a MySpacer or a Facebooker.  Those that preferred clean lines, a simple interface, and legitimate friend requests choose Bookface.  Those that didn't mind a clunky interface, albeit full customization possibilities, and loads of fraudulent friend requests sided with MySpace.

Now recall Facebook circa 2008-09 (shouldn't be too hard, 2009 was like, less than a year ago).  As FB opened up to the whole of humanity, youth everywhere were able to painfully recount their story of hovering over the "Ignore" button before frustratingly clicking "Accept" after receiving the dreaded Parental-Unit Friend Request--to me, when this occurred, the party was over. The lights were flipped on, the beer was dumped out.
(Hey, the after-party still rages on Twitt...  ughh, forget it).


Present day? As Media Life Magazine recently reported, Facebook just hit 500 million users.  When I got my own P-UFR, around the summer of 2009, there were half as many users. In that article, Media Life astutely notes that if Facebook were a nation, it would be the earth's 3rd most populous.  500 million? That's a full 1/14th of the world's population.  What does this mean?  Well, it basically means that Facebook IS the internet.  I challenge anyone to visit 3 different websites on the internet that don't mention Facebook or feature a tiny Facebook icon. 

So what does it mean for the local marketer?  Glad you asked, considering that's the business Balihoo is in.  It means that just as you're clamoring for Search Engine Optimization and optimized Google AdWords performance, you should also be for a Facebook account.  Seriously, integrate this, right now, into your local internet marketing strategy if you haven't already.  You can set up a Business page (as opposed to the more personal pages I describe above) and customers, or, potential customers, can become fans of that page.  Next, commit to doing these things:

• Spend at least 2-3 hours a week tending your page.  Conversely, limit your tending to 168 hours per week.

• Share photos, videos, and blog about what you do, how you do it, or why you do what it is you do.  If you don't know why it is you do what you do, wow, I don't know what to tell you.  That's definitely not a good thing.

• Respond to those that comment on your posts or Wall

• Share links to news on your business or industry trends.  Links to funny YouTube videos are appreciated but probably a bad idea.  Unless you have a Facebook page, Break.com, then you should keep doing that.

• Have fun (I just wanted 5 bullet points and "have fun" seemed like an easy way to get the fifth. A lot of people use that tactic.)

Moral of the local advertising story: if you're not on Facebook, your competitor probably already is--so sign up and get to postin'!  BONUS moral: a business page is much different than a personal page: the party doesn't have to end when you're sent a friend request from your parent company.  I apologize, that was a really terrible joke.   

The below is a guest post from Evan Hackel at Ingage Consulting. 


The Best Strategy for Implementing Marketing Strategies

By: Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel is the President and Founder of Ingage Consulting, www.ingageconsulting.com. Throughout his twenty-five year career, he has seen the need not only for improved engagement but for an understanding of why engagement plays such an important role in any organization. Evan’s company works closely with the managers and leaders of franchises, co-ops, and buying groups, to help them improve their business practices. Evan can be reached directly at ehackel@ingageconsulting.com.

When it comes to creating and implementing marketing strategies, many organizations miss an opportunity to engage their franchisees, members, or dealers. Companies tend to just present their ideas and force them down through the ranks until they have reached everyone associated with the brand.  Of course, this is not really the case, but it can seem that way to recipients of the information.  Implementing a marketing strategy this way will only cause franchisees, members, or dealers to resist the new strategy. In general, people like to feel like they are part of the process; therefore, they respond better when made part of the process.  

In an ideal world, franchisees, members or dealers would enthusiastically implement all new marketing programs. In high performing organizations, there is a lot of enthusiasm and support for new ideas; communicating is relatively easy and there is a great deal of support for the efforts. But for many franchises, co-ops, and dealer networks, it is difficult to implement the organization’s message effectively and in the way that management would like. 

One of the best ways to ensure that a marketing plan is received and executed at all levels in the organization is to first, involve franchisees, members, or dealers in advertising groups. These groups, local or regional, will represent what is happening at the consumer level and be networking groups to support each other in marketing efforts.  It's important to use the groups to get input on the development of marketing plans; not just as a way to roll out a program.        

Another way to engage franchisees, dealers, or members in carrying out your marketing strategy is to create a brand council. The brand council should be involved in aspects of your marketing efforts.   Participants of the brand council should also be included in presentations to the franchise, cooperative, or dealer group and should be invited to write articles and postings for the organization’s intranet.   

Engaging your members, dealers, or franchisees in implementing marketing strategies is just the first step. Organizations need to measure and understand the success level of their current marketing plan. Of course, this is a good practice for understanding success and helping with future marketing efforts. It is also important for franchisees, members, and dealers to know that you are paying attention to them. Many of you, I am sure, are tracking sales, which is good, but there are intangible aspects to marketing efforts that sales alone can't measure. Having a report form for your franchisees, members, or dealers to feel out their opinions on the marketing efforts is a good way to get high-quality feedback. Ask questions like: how could we have made this local marketing effort better, would you do this again in the future, and did customers mention the local advertising? Report back to the group what you have learned. This will show you have been listening. 

The reports are a great idea for improving engagement and for learning more about the success of your marketing efforts, but you are likely to only get a small sampling of reports back. This is okay; the fact you are asking for feedback and that everyone knows they have the ability to share their thoughts and ideas is what's important.

How do you engage your franchisees, members or dealers with your local marketing plans? Do you have a brand council and how does that work? How do you get feedback on success?

Thanks for the guest post Evan, good information.  I couldn't agree more, specifically when you're dealing with Local Marketing Automation.  Whether implementing a new local advertising campaign, new channel marketing software or new local marketing software, it's critical to get buy-in from the key players.  This will be one of the key drivers of adoption - in fact, we recently wrote a whitepaper identifying the key issues with adoption around new co-op marketing solutions, you can download it here. 

Like many young professionals fresh out of graduate school can tell you, this market has proven to be difficult to find the level of salary that helps yield a return on the investment of education.  Many recent grads, myself included, are having to work second jobs to help pay off those pesky student loans that are now being billed on.  That being said I consider myself one of the lucky grads who has been able to find work with a great company like Balihoo in the field that I would like to be in. And to supplement additional income, I also work at Ethan Allen Home Interiors as one of the weekend receptionist. The Ethan Allen Design Center of Boise (EADCB) is a locally owned small business that experiences the marketing challenges that small businesses encounter.

 I often find that while working at Ethan Allen, it is hard for me to turn off my marketing brain and thus I am constantly trying to come up with marketing ideas for the owner that are cost effective. Most small businesses don’t have a huge marketing budget; and for that reason it is necessary to make sure the money that is allocated towards local advertising is being used in an efficient and productive way.

While researching marketing ideas for small businesses I found the article Ten Powerful Marketing Tips for the Small Business by Ann Marie Rubertone. In this article, Rubertone outlines ten marketing ideas that small business should consider such as teaming up your marketing efforts with another business, hosting an open house, or simply answering your phones differently. I find this article a great resource for small business owners because it helps generate new and creative marketing ideas. But it is important to remember that before you begin implementing some of these local marketing ideas, you will want to make sure you understand your target audience. Knowing your customer is the key to the success of your local marketing campaign.

 Ethan Allen Corporate has a great knowledge base of their target audience and EADCB works hard at maintaining the corporate image while at the same time making it fit into the local Boise community. Because EADCB knows the importance of buying locally and supporting local small businesses in their community, a large part of their marketing is focused on giving their location a local identity.  EADCB bases a lot of their marketing funds on sponsorships of events throughout the community like Ballot of Idaho, local high school teams and events, and Idaho Voices for Children. They also host various open to the public educational seminars throughout the year, and twice a year have “Customer Appreciation Nights” where they focus on making their customers feel like they are part of the “EADCB family.”

However you decided to distribute your marketing funds, ask yourself two questions; who’s my target audience and will this local store marketing campaign reach them effectively? 

 

As a local marketing and media planner here at Balihoo I have heard plenty of wacky ways local advertisers are marketing within their community.  The most recent of which truly ranks among the strangest.  Let's just say... if you are an advertiser in the state of California searching for the newest local advertising opportunity then look no further than your local DMV. That's right- the Department of Motor Vehicles.  

The California Legislature recently introduced a Bill that would allow California residents to install license plates that flash digital ads. The plates would show the registered display (numbers/letters) for that specific vehicle while in motion then run advertisements when the vehicle is stopped.  The plates have the potential to be used for emergency broadcasts and Amber Alerts as well.  As the California budget deficit continues to grow law makers are doing their best to come up with ideas to combat it.  And to top it all off the DMV is considering splitting the ad revenue with participating drivers... Sign Me Up! 

The idea steamed from the recent success of outdoor billboard companies. They have been continually transitioning traditional outdoor billboards (posting of paper or vinyl) to digital boards with increased adoption and excitement from advertisers.  Not only can the same technology be applied to vehicle license plates but the message can be changed out just as quickly.

Of course there are proponents (local marketing and media professionals) and those in opposition to the proposed effort.  Both of which have very valid points, check out the link below to learn more: 
www.govtech.com/gt/765490 

Kudos to whomever came up with this incredibly creative idea.  If all goes as planned and Californians begin to see Burger King Whopper Juniors on the back of Mom's Minivan I don't doubt that some genius out of Silicon Valley will eventually figure out a way to send texts directly to license plates.  Wouldn't it be nice to tell that tailgating jerk behind you what you really think!?!?  Oh the possibilities... 

You know the best thing about the new social media phenomenon?  Anyone can do it.  In the days of old, advertising was only for those with seemingly endless pockets.  The small local business owner could advertise, but he or she could hardly expect to make a dent, even in the local market, before the local advertising budget ran out.

These days, all you need is a little good old fashioned creativity and an internet connection - or just use the connection down at your local Starbucks.  Okay, so creativity is easier said than done, but every day you can find new examples of companies putting these cheap and effective local marketing ideas to good use.  And I'm sure every time you, as the small business owner thinks, I wish I had thought of that.

The small business publication, Entrepreneur, writes about yet another example of one of those I-Wish-I-Woulda-Done-That-enducing campaigns:  the Old Spice videos.  Who knew Old Spice, your dad's cologne, would come back with such a cool, hip, not-your-dad's-cologne online marketing campaign? 

I will caveat, as the publication does, that Old Spice works with one of those companies with the seemingly endless pockets, but the article redeems itself with a very detailed and achievable step-by-step list of how to follow Old Spice's social media lead in your own local internet marketing.  

So roll up your sleeves, watch the Old Spice videos for inspiration (or, if you're already inspired, the attractive man doesn't hurt) and advertise like the endless-pocket'ers through social media and local internet marketing.

Last week I had the great privilege of attending a customer service workshop hosted by one of Balihoo's investors, OpenView Venture Partners.  The workshop was lead by Bill Price, who with David Jaffe, co-authored the book The Best Service Is No Service: How To Liberate Your Customers From Customer Service, Keep Them Happy & Control Costs.

The workshop focused on the seven principles of the book (which I would recommend for anyone who may EVER come in contact with a customer) and engaged the participants with plenty of hands-on tasks and group activities.  Bill had a lot of great advice for the small group of attending tech companies, which wasn't surprising, coming from his background as Amazon's first Global VP of Customer Service.

The fundamental principle he emphasized again and again was to challenge the need for customer service, not just meet the demand for it.  In the context of the SaaS (software as a service) industry, the message particularly rang true with our driving quest to create intuitive software products that deliver engaging self-service.  Bill challenged us to proactively identify the root cause of our customers' needs and get ahead of them to deliver solutions long before someone has to pick up the phone or type an email to a customer service team.

For Balihoo's local marketing and co-op advertising solution, we realized right away that Bill's approach to providing not just great service, but 'Best Service' was soon to become an integral part of our entire company.  Because Balihoo's service offering goes beyond simply supporting the users of our software to delivering comprehensive local marketing and media planning services, everyone in our office is customer facing in one way or another.  I believe that this additional service component of our company is what separates us from most other software companies, and makes Bill's ideas all the more applicable to our mission to revolutionize local marketing.

I'm excited to implement the Best Services principles in our office and I am confident our customers will agree!   

 If you've ever been associated with the "delivery" side of a co-op or MDF advertising program, you've likely received an email/vmail/letter something like:  


Any of these issues sound familiar?  Did you know that using Balihoo's channel marketing software to manage your co-op advertising program can address all of these issues and more?  Avoid getting another letter like this, request a free demo of our solution today.  

Working for Balihoo, a company that focuses on local advertising, we look for signs of success all around us in our little town of Boise, Idaho. Let me tell a short story about word of mouth advertising performed by a certain Frenchman.

On a lovely blue sky evening in this fine downtown, after consuming some locally brewed fair at The Falcon, I happened upon a middle-aged man sitting at a table with mouth-wateringly delicious baked something-er-others displayed in front of him. I then noticed the cash box and realized these brilliant edible charmers were for sale. And then he spoke.

The eloquence that left that man's tongue still rings in my ear. "Mademoiselle, would you care for a sweet baked roll? I would love for you to enjoy this. Two dollars if you please." The man has hair to his waist, a neatly trimmed beard and donned a chef's jacket and hat. Was he pulling my leg? An Idaho-born actor with a knack for European accents? Questions aside, I had emotionally committed to the sweet roll before realizing I had only 20 cents on me. That Frenchman offered it up anyway with a huge smile on his face, asking only that I let others know of his product.

As it goes with Balihoo culture, we enjoy sharing such stories. Nico, one of our internet advertising designers, is hosting an art show at a coffee shop downtown tonight. I emailed the company asking that everyone not only attend her show, but visit my long-haired, French-accent bearing pastry chef. This sponned an email chain between people across the company - some admitting sitings of the Frenchman, others claiming he bakes in a top Italian kitchen after hours, others simply wanting his location and hours of operation.

Looking for more local marketing ideas to help your franchise or franchisees? Download Balihoo's white paper on Local Marketing Automation.

 A few months ago, during one of Balihoo's Friday morning trips to the local Starbucks coffee shop, I noticed an interesting display on the counter.  It was a clear container full of green sticks with little mermaids adorning their tops.  What caught my eye, in particular, was the message on the display.  In case you can't read it on the attached picture, it says:

'Inspired By You!  A great idea brought to us by YOU. Keep 'em coming - we're listening!  
- MyStarbucksIdea.com

I was immediately impressed with Starbucks' proactive approach to connecting with their customers and letting them know they're listening.  I quickly realized it wasn't about spilled coffee, the need to stir in four packets of sugar, or cute green mermaids.  Starbucks easily could have produced the 'splash sticks' and simply started stocking them in their shops alongside the sugar packets and napkins.  But instead, they took the time to create a new display and a friendly message to catch the eyes of their customers as they ordered coffee.

Connecting with customers is something all business should strive to do.  And there is no better opportunity to reach out and show them you care than when you have clearly listened to their feedback and acted on it.

Being a growing company, Balihoo has a lot to learn from our customers.  Although we already think our co-op advertising and local marketing software is pretty cool, we realize there is a long path of development ahead of us, and much of that path is yet to be mapped.  We will have to listen to our customers and continue building our product so it doesn't just meet their needs and expectations, it exceeds them.

We're already doing a lot to give our current users the opportunity to let us know what they think about our software and how we can make it better.  From our user experience study group, to email surveys and the feedback tool in the corner of our homepage, we want people to feel comfortable telling us exactly what they want.

And from my own experience interacting with our users, I'm going to agree with Starbucks that it's a lot more fun to make a big deal about a new product, new design, or new feature, than to quietly launch it and wait to see who notices.

 

National Doughnut Day is celebrated every year on the first Friday in June. Many of you may think that this holiday was created to commercialize the doughnut industry but there is history behind this holiday.  The first National Doughnut Day was celebrated in Chicago in 1938, as a way to celebrate and honor the Salvation Army “Doughnut Lassies” or “Doughnut Girls” and raise money for the Salvation Army’s efforts during the Great Depression. These women volunteered to help feed the soldiers in France during World War I. 

According the Salvation Army website, these women “served countless treats to grateful soldiers, traversing through the trenches to bring the men doughnuts and coffee. More than just filling an empty stomach, these doughnuts and the joyful presence of the women who worked so hard to make them provided the soldiers with the boost their spirits needed during an extraordinarily difficult time. The doughnuts became an instant hit that was brought back to America by returning doughboys”.

 

Now that you have learned the history behind National Doughnut Day, let’s take a look at this holiday from a local store marketing standpoint. As we have learned from previous blogs like Local Marketing Ideas- Are Giveaways Good or Bad? on the Balihoo website, discounts, promotions, and giveaways are a great way to boost short term sales and store traffic. On the other hand using discounts, promotions, and giveaways too frequently can have a negative impact on how consumers view the brand’s image.  To guarantee a successful promotion, you must make sure your offer is significant in helping your brand build awareness, create interest, provide information or stimulate demand.  

 

An article, Creating Powerful Promotional Marketing by Darrell Zahorsky , explains the different types of promotional marketing and outlines a list of questions that small businesses should answer before they launch a local advertising  promotional campaign.  I found the article very helpful in outlining the incentives and objectives of a promotional campaign.

Don't forget to celebrate National Doughnut Day by visiting your favorite doughnut shop today!

  

 

 

When researching media vehicles for an advertising media plan here at Balihoo we make certain to cover all of our bases, from television to newspaper advertising and everything in between.  Inevitably we end up requesting local advertising information about out-of-home (which comes in many forms: traditional billboard, vehicle wraps, bus shelters, etc). Out-of-home can be a very efficient media type for clients whose initiative is to drive brand or promotional awareness at the local level.  It's one of the oldest forms of advertising that remains one of the most effective.  I recently heard about two very established global brands who have turned their attention to out-of-home for upcoming promotions. They are taking out-of-home to entirely new and creative level.

Universal Studios Hollywood is making a real "footprint" in the marketplace on the promotion of a new attraction opening this Summer; King Kong 360 3-D. Check out the attached article to see where King Kong has been sighted and the damage he's doing in places like Dodger stadium. 

www.slashfilm.com/2010/06/03/cool-stuff-king-kong-attacks-dodger-stadium-and-santa-monica-beach/


JELL-O another global brand with a very strong following is once again teaming up with Bill Cosby (after a 10 year hiatus) this summer traveling around the country with the "Give it a Giggle Tour". Participants at 22 different locations across the US enter a traveling recording studio to voice their best giggle.  The winner will be selected by Cosby himself and aired within a national television spot. Click below to read more. 

www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/bill-cosby-jell-o-togethe_n_578592.html

During a time when most advertisers are relying on Internet and interactive media as primary advertising tools it's refreshing to see large well known brands implementing out-of-home into their marketing plans.  I encourage those responsible for local marketing strategy to reexamine this medium and integrate it once again in local marketing and media plans. Out-of-home that stands out from the crowd does require creativity and reinvention but it's not a lost art. Advertisers will be pleased with the amount of consumers that receive their message and how far the reach will extend.  


 

As noted in previous Balihoo posts, many national brand and franchise marketing teams have ramped up the number of discounts, promotions and giveaways they offer in an effort to boost customer traffic. While successful in generating sales, relying on discounts too heavily has the potential to permanently reshape a consumer's perception of your brand - thereby hurting your brand name in the long-term.

To ensure your promotions are helping to grow your franchise in a sustainable way, make sure that your offer isn't just remarkable but resonant. Use a compelling offer to draw attention to a brand differentiator or to deliver your franchise's distinctive value.

To really kick your local store marketing effort to the next level, check out this Local Store Marketing white paper. Or for additional tips on using how to determine if offering freebies and giveaways makes sense for your brand; check out this great Quick Service Magazine article to determine if you are being 'Short Sighted'.